Thursday, December 02, 2004

WSJ.com - Personal Technology: Portable Media Center Is the Wrong Choice For Nontechie Users: "There's a tendency in the technology industry to think that, just because a product can be built, it should be built, even if all the necessary pieces to make it a success aren't in place. Sometimes these premature products eventually become hits. Sometimes they just fail.
It's too early to know which of those fates awaits the latest premature tech device: the handheld, hard-disk-based video player. But one thing is certain. It's not ready for prime time yet.
...
Based on my tests, I can't recommend either player for mainstream, nontechie users. This is not so much because of the design of the players themselves. It's because there's so little video content available to play on them, and Microsoft's software does a poor job of transferring commercial content to the players."

"The Kingmaker" explains why, with an unsurprising tip of the hat to Apple, he dislikes yet another Microsoft-based product category.